Discovering the power of data in Deer Valley
The Challenge
In 2005, Deer Valley Unified School District (DVUSD) began to grow quickly, opening two new high schools in one year and hiring large numbers of school and district staff. During the rapid expansion, the district needed to improve communication and organization among all its schools to continue progress on school improvement initiatives. The district realized it needed a process for interpreting school and district data that all staff could understand and support.
Strategic Solution
Due to their positive experience with McREL's Balanced Leadership®, the district chose McREL's Power of Data workshop to help meet its goals. For two focused days, McREL facilitators Kay Frunzi and Dana Frazee showed administrators, principals, and teachers how to organize and analyze data using templates. DVUSD participants found that different types of data—demographic, outcome, program, and perception data—helped them understand their schools' and district's needs. In addition, DVUSD asked McREL to work with individual schools to help staff draw explicit connections between Balanced Leadership and Power of Data.
Results
Power of Data allowed the district to put all its school improvement pieces together. With a common process, they were able to generate school goals from the data and then determine which practices to put in place and which principal responsibilities they needed to achieve those goals. "When ideas, goals, and language become embedded within the staff, it gets everyone on the same page and consistently keeps everyone focused on the school improvement goals," said then-Associate Superintendent Kent Davis. Power of Data has better prepared them to implement changes that affect the district, schools, and classrooms.
Next Steps
DVUSD is currently using Power of Data strategies and processes to determine the best way to implement the Common Core Standards and new assessments. Now that they have the tools to collaboratively analyze data throughout the year, they plan to use data to reach their school improvement goals and implement and sustain meaningful change.
